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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29451921">stranger than fiction</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/sara_wolfe/pseuds/sara_wolfe'>sara_wolfe</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Road Less Travelled By (Charmed AUs) [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Charmed (TV 1998)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Bodyswap, Gen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 18:55:32</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>7,361</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29451921</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/sara_wolfe/pseuds/sara_wolfe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>the trope-y adventures of the Halliwell/Matthews family. a season two (and beyond) rewrite.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Phoebe Halliwell &amp; Piper Halliwell &amp; Prue Halliwell &amp; Paige Matthews</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Road Less Travelled By (Charmed AUs) [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2163336</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>stranger than fiction</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Piper paced the length of the attic, arms wrapped around her stomach. The attic was silent, save for the sounds of her footsteps, and Prue quietly turning the pages of the Book of Shadows. With only the two of them, it was too quiet. It was unnerving. </p><p>"Are you sure this spell is going to work?" Piper asked, her voice breaking the silence. </p><p>Prue glanced over at Piper from where she was poring over the Book. "No," she answered, honestly, "but I can't think of a better way to find Phoebe, can you?"</p><p>"We could always try scrying, again," Piper suggested, but she was hesitant, because she knew it wasn't likely to work. Not after they'd already scryed for their missing sister for over an hour with absolutely nothing to show for it. </p><p>"Won't work," Prue said, shortly. "Just like the blood to blood spell didn't work, and Leo's not answering our calls..." She glared up at the ceiling, like she could pull the Whitelighter into the attic with nothing more than the sheer force of her anger. </p><p>"It's just-" Piper cut herself off, looking conflicted. "Prue, this could be a really dangerous spell," she finally argued. "Even Grams thinks so, or she wouldn't have kept flipping past the page when you first found it."</p><p>"Piper, I don't care if it's dangerous," Prue shot back. "And I don't see that we have any other choice, do you?" She turned her frosty glare on her younger sister, almost daring her to say anything. </p><p>Piper joined her sister at the Book, stabbing her finger down on the page. "The last witch who used the soul walking spell couldn't get back into her own body, and she died," she protested. </p><p>Prue shot her a dark look, opening her mouth to say something, but then her shoulders slumped, and her anger seemed to rush out of her. "That's a risk I'm willing to take for Phoebe," she said, softly. "Aren't you?"</p><p>"Great," Piper grumbled. "Use guilt."</p><p>"If it works," Prue replied. "You ready to do this?"</p><p>"No," Piper muttered, but she took Prue's place in front of the Book while Prue took a seat on the couch. "Last chance to try something slightly less suicidal," she warned. </p><p>"Just say the spell," Prue told her. </p><p>Piper sighed, looking down at the spell that Prue had hastily altered on a piece of paper. The original spell just separated the soul from the body; Prue had changed the last line, adding a part that was supposed to take her to wherever Phoebe was. </p><p>Piper still wasn't sure if they were doing the right thing. The spell was dangerous enough in its original form; with Prue's changes, who knew what could happen? But Prue was looking at her, expectantly, and she dutifully recited the spell. </p><p>
  <i>"Unbound by life's chains,<br/>
And free to roam.<br/>
Release soul from body,<br/>
To bring our sister home."</i>
</p><p>On the couch, Prue slumped over, completely boneless. Piper was about to walk over to where she lay when Prue sat up, suddenly, choking on a panicked gasp. Her eyes were wide with panic. </p><p>"Where the hell am I?" she demanded, hoarsely. Eyes lighting on Piper, she shot to her feet. "What happened? Where am I?"</p><p>"You're in the attic," Piper told her, as Prue looked around in confusion. "Prue, you were gone for less than a second. Did the spell backfire?"</p><p>"Spell?" Prue echoed, staring at her. "What spell? And who's Prue?"</p><p>"You are," Piper said, watching as Prue moved slowly around the attic, staring at the room like she'd never even seen it before. Prue looked at her like she was crazy. </p><p>"Look, lady, my name isn't Prue," she protested. "It's Paige. Paige Matthews."</p>
<hr/><p>Phoebe didn't know what had happened to her. The last thing she remembered, she'd been fighting a demon with her sisters, only for the demon to grab her by the arms and drag her through a portal to emerge in some strange, cold cavern with him. He'd had her chained to a rock and was ranting and raving when the world had started spinning. Everything had gone black, and now…</p><p>Phoebe groaned as she forced her eyes open, only to shut them a second later when a bright light sent a spike of pain through her skull. She tried to push herself to a sitting position, but she was lying at a strange angle and her arms shook from the effort. When she tried again, a hand pushed gently on her shoulder, stopping her from moving. </p><p>"Stay down," an unfamiliar male voice said. "There's an ambulance on the way."</p><p>"What-" Phoebe started, but she didn't recognize the sound of her own voice. She coughed to clear her throat, trying again. "What happened?" Nope. She still didn't sound like herself.</p><p>"You passed out," the man told her. "Hit your head pretty hard on the stairs."</p><p>Phoebe shifted, feeling a hard edge under shoulders. If she was lying on the stairs, that would explain why she felt unbalanced. She braced herself again, determinedly pushing herself to a sitting position. </p><p>"I don't need-" Phoebe trailed off as she opened her eyes and the world spun in circles around her. "I don't need an ambulance," she protested, weakly. </p><p>The man crouched in front of her laughed out loud. "Try that one again when you've stopped bleeding and your eyes aren't spinning in separate orbits. You're going to the hospital, Paige. End of discussion."</p><p>When the man told her she was bleeding, Phoebe put a hand to her head, pulling away fingers sticky with blood. Then his last sentence registered. </p><p>"Wait a minute," she said. "Did you just call me Paige?" Taking a closer look at the man, she added, "Who are you?"</p><p>The man blinked in surprise. "Robert Cowan," he prompted her. "Your boss?" Before she could say anything, he added, "Don't tell me you gave yourself brain damage."</p><p>"I, uh-" Phoebe trailed off in horror, because there was a window next to the stairs where she was sitting, and she'd just caught sight of her reflection. And she was staring at someone else's face. "Maybe I should go to the hospital," she finished, weakly. </p><p>The ambulance showed up about a minute later, and Phoebe was bustled into the back after a cursory examination. She had to admit, the ride to the hospital was kind of exciting, speeding through the streets with the sirens blaring. She just wished that she hadn't had to crack her head open – crack <i>someone else's</i> head open – to experience it. </p><p>At the hospital, the techs got her into a curtained-off room, but then they got another call and they left her alone. And they hadn't had time to admit her to the ER, which meant that it was surprisingly easy to slip out of the busy area and outside. Her head still hurt, but she kept going. The bleeding had mostly stopped in the ambulance, and Leo could heal the rest of the damage later. And she'd make her apologies later to whoever's body she was currently occupying. </p><p>She needed to get back home to her sisters and figure out what was going on.</p>
<hr/><p>As she listened to Piper recite the soul walking spell, Prue felt her eyes growing heavy. The world went black for the briefest second, and then she opened her eyes. </p><p>She'd expected to feel disjointed, confused as she adjusted to no longer being in her body. She hadn't expected pain. She hadn't expected the feel of rock digging into her back, of cold chains wrapped around her body. She hadn't expected to see the demon they'd been fighting earlier, the one who'd taken Phoebe, to be pacing restlessly in front of her. </p><p>And he was…monologuing?</p><p>"-have been the Source's loyal lapdog, but no more!" he ranted at her. "I will be the ultimate power in the Underworld; I've been building my power base for centuries! Nothing can stop me!" He spun on his heel, glaring fiercely at her. "Not even you witches."</p><p>"Don't count on that," Prue snapped, automatically, and then she froze. Phoebe's voice had just come out of her mouth. </p><p>Prue tucked her chin into her chest as she tried to lean forward, but the chains stopped her from moving more than an inch. Rolling her eyes down, she saw the shirt that Phoebe had been wearing when she'd been taken. Her legs were free, and she stomped her right foot on the ground. Pain shot up her leg from her ankle, exactly the way Phoebe's would after she'd stumbled on the stairs and twisted her ankle that morning. </p><p>She was in Phoebe's body.</p><p>Piper had warned her that the spell could backfire, especially since Prue had made her own alterations to it. But she hadn't imagined body swapping. And now she couldn't get back to Piper to tell her where Phoebe was being held. </p><p>Prue could have smacked herself a second later. If she'd swapped bodies with Phoebe, then she didn't have to worry about telling Piper where she was, because Phoebe could do it herself. And Phoebe being in her body meant that the two sisters with active powers were still at the Manor, and could come rescue her. And Phoebe already knew how to access her telekinesis, from the last time they'd swapped powers…</p><p><i>'This isn't how I imagined the spell playing out,'</i> Prue thought, <i>'but I think it can work.'</i></p><p>Leveling a glare of her own at the demon, she told him, "We are so going to vanquish your sorry ass."</p><p>"Nothing can vanquish me!" the demon roared at her, spittle flying from his mouth. Prue rubbed her cheek against her shoulder to get rid of the stuff that had hit her. </p><p><i>'Don't count on that,'</i> Prue thought, rolling her eyes as the demon started pacing and ranting, again. <i>'My sisters and I are going to take you down.'</i></p>
<hr/><p>Paige stared numbly at her reflection in the small, handheld mirror. A stranger's face stared back at her. </p><p>"You okay?" The woman who'd introduced herself as Piper Halliwell was sitting at the opposite end of the couch, a concerned look on her face. "Believe me, I know how overwhelming this stuff can be, when you first find out about it."</p><p>"Overwhelming," Paige echoed, faintly. "That's not exactly the word I would have used."</p><p>She couldn't hold back a shudder when she heard her words in the strange woman's voice. Piper noticed, giving her a sympathetic smile. </p><p>"I'm sure Prue will be home any second now," she said, trying for reassuring and failing miserably. "Once she realizes that she's in your body, she'll head straight here, and we can undo the spell. Magic can be kind of whacky, sometimes," she finished, apologetically. </p><p>"Magic," Paige repeated, feeling faint as the word left her lips. </p><p>When she woke up that morning, she could never have imagined that things like magic and body swapping would become a part of her life. She just wanted things to go back to normal. </p><p>"I just don't understand how the spell could have backfired this badly," Piper went on, obviously babbling to fill the awkward silence that filled the attic. "I mean, if Prue was going to swap bodies with anyone, it should have been Phoebe, because the spell specified sisters. And you're certainly not our sister," she added, with a weak laugh. "No offense." </p><p>"None taken," Paige replied. Shifting in her seat, she glanced over at the big book that Piper had said was the cause of her current predicament. "Um, are you sure that you can reverse this spell with that thing?"</p><p>"Oh, yeah," Piper said, quickly. "It'll work. We just need Prue back here to make sure your souls go back to the proper bodies."</p><p>Paige stared at her in disbelief. "Proper bodies?" she demanded, feeling like all she was doing was echoing everything Piper told her. "What do you mean, go back to the proper bodies?"</p><p>"Well," Piper blushed deep crimson, "there's a teeny, tiny chance that the reversal spell could backfire again, and you could wind up in my body, or permanently stuck in Prue's." Seeing the panic that must have flashed across her face, Piper added, hastily, "It's a minuscule chance. Practically nonexistent."</p><p>"You do realize," Paige said slowly, "that the only reason I haven't run screaming out of here is because I'm inside a stranger's body. The least you could do is not do anything to make that impulse stronger."</p><p>"Sorry," Piper muttered. "Um, can I get you coffee, or-"</p><p>"I'm fine," Paige interrupted her, quickly. "I really just want to get back into my own body, and get back to work. I just got this job, and I really don't want to lose it." She laughed, hearing herself. "My soul is in another person's body, and I'm worried about my job."</p><p>"That's normal," Piper told her, with a small smile. "Believe me, it helps, sometimes, focusing on the normal stuff when the world is going crazy around you."</p><p>"Like whether I forgot to turn off the stove?" Paige asked, wryly. </p><p>"Exactly," Piper replied. "Sometimes, my sisters and I will be fighting a demon, and we'll start arguing about what we're having for dinner."</p><p>Paige blinked, sure she'd just heard wrong. She prayed she'd just heard wrong. "Did you just say demon?" she asked. </p><p>A guilty look flashed across Piper's face. "Did I forget to mention that part?"</p><p>"Yeah, kinda." Paige dropped her head into her hands. "I just want to go home," she muttered, hearing a hint of a whine in her voice, but she didn't care enough to stop it. </p><p>"We're going to fix this, I promise," Piper told her. "We – Leo!"</p><p>Paige looked up at the excited tone in Piper's voice, eyes widening as a bright light filled the attic. She looked to Piper to gauge what her reaction should be, but the other woman looked happy, like she knew what was going on.</p><p>"Leo, thank god, you aren't going to believe everything that's happened," Piper blurted out in a rush, but then she stopped when the light cleared. "You're not Leo," she said, a suspicious tone in her voice, and when she took a step back, Paige could see another person standing in front of them. </p><p>"No," she said, finally feeling on slightly firmer ground. "That's me."</p><p>Piper looked back and forth between Paige and whoever was inside her body. "That's you?" she asked, and Paige nodded in confirmation. Piper turned her attention back to Paige's body. "Prue, you in there?"</p><p>"No, it's Phoebe," the other woman said, as she looked around the attic. "Um, how did I get here?" Gesturing to the body she was borrowing, she added, emphatically, "And how did I get in here?"</p><p>"Prue cast a backfired spell, and you orbed," Piper told her. "You orbed," she repeated in an awestruck tone, and then the two of them turned to stare at Paige in astonishment. </p><p>"You're a Whitelighter?" Piper demanded, sounding confused. </p><p>Paige shook her head, frantically. "No!" she insisted. "I don't even know what a Whitelighter is!"</p><p>Piper turned back to stare at Phoebe in shock. "Then, what are you?" she asked, quietly.</p>
<hr/><p>Piper watched Paige's eyes go wide, a shocked, hurt look coming over her face. She'd known that the words were a mistake as soon as she'd said them, but she hadn't been able to stop herself. Paige took a shuddering breath, her hands clenching into fists.</p><p>"What am I?" she repeated, slowly. "What the hell-"</p><p>"Paige, no, I'm sorry," Piper said, quickly, cutting the other woman off before she could finish. "I didn't mean that the way it sounded, I'm sorry."</p><p>"I don't know what she just did with my body," Paige said, pointing a shaking hand at Phoebe, "but I couldn't do that this morning."</p><p>"It's called orbing," Piper told her. "It's a power that Whitelighters have."</p><p>"I don't know what that is!" Paige's voice was tinged with hysteria, and she looked like she was about to fall apart. Piper didn't blame her. Hard enough to learn that magic existed; even harder to have it completely uproot your life in one fell swoop. </p><p>"A Whitelighter is a kind of guardian angel," Piper replied, getting a frosty look in return. </p><p>"Don't you think I'd know if I was some kind of angel?" she snapped. </p><p>"Maybe not a Whitelighter," Phoebe spoke up, musingly. "Maybe just half." She shrugged when Piper shot her a curious look. "What? When we went to the future, you and Leo had a daughter. She's going to be half-Whitelighter, so we know it's possible."</p><p>"Yeah, but it's still forbidden," Piper argued. "Leo and I still aren't allowed to be together, and I doubt a lot of other witches and Whitelighters are chomping at the bit to break that rule. I mean, the only other ones who-" She trailed off as realization dawned. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me."</p><p>Phoebe's eyes went wide. "You don't think?" she asked, nodding significantly at Paige. </p><p>"Yeah," Piper said, flatly. "Yeah, I'm starting to think-"</p><p>"Cut the cryptic crap." Paige's no-nonsense tone cut through their conversation. </p><p>She stalked over, arms crossed over her chest, rivaling Prue at her most intimidating. If Piper had needed any further proof that this woman was family, she had it in spades.  </p><p>"Look," Paige went on, fixing both of them with an implacable stare, "I may not be a witch like the two of you, and I may not fight demons, but your screwed-up spell hit me, too. I'm in this thing just as much as you are. That means you're going to stop talking around me like I'm not even here, and you're going to tell me what's going on. Now."</p><p>Piper sighed. "About a week ago," she told Paige, "we found out that our mom had an affair with her Whitelighter. It's against the rules, and they had to keep their relationship a secret from everyone. We thought it was just because of the whole 'forbidden love' aspect, but now-"</p><p>"Now you're starting to think that it was more because of the forbidden baby," Paige finished for her. "Me."</p><p>"At least we know why the spell hit you, now," Piper offered, getting a small smile from the other woman. </p><p>"My parents never told me anything about my biological family," Paige said, quietly. "There was never anything to tell. I was left at a church, and some nun named Sister Anges found me. She turned me over to Social Services, and my parents adopted me a few months later." She shook her head, ruefully. "I didn't even know I was adopted until I was ten."</p><p>"Mom's Whitelighter was Sam Wilder," Phoebe prompted, but Paige shook her head. </p><p>"I don't know that name," she said. Sighing, she added, "I can't believe this is happening."</p><p>Piper glanced over at Paige. "You okay with all this?" she asked, worriedly. </p><p>"You mean magic, angels, and long-lost sisters all in one day?" Paige asked. "Oh, yeah, I'm just peachy." She scrubbed a hand over her face. "Not to break up this tender family moment, but we still have to find your – our – sister and reverse this body swap thing."</p><p>Piper nodded. "Right. Pheebs, where'd the demon take you after he grabbed you?"</p><p>"Some random cavern," Phoebe replied. "I don't know if it was a cave, or maybe even in the Underworld."</p><p>"Can humans even go to the Underworld?" Piper asked. "I thought only demons came from there."</p><p>"I don't know," Phoebe said. "I don't even know how we're going to find Prue."</p><p>"Maybe you can use one of Paige's other Whitelighter powers," Piper suggested. "Leo can sense his charges, like he did with Daisy. Maybe you can sense Prue."</p><p>"Piper, I don't even know how I orbed here," Phoebe protested. "One second I was on the sidewalk, and I wanted to be home, and then I was. What am I supposed to do, just wish to find Prue-"</p><p>Her voice trailed off as she disappeared in a bright, white light. Piper's jaw dropped, and she turned to see Paige staring at the spot where Phoebe had been standing, an incredulous expression on her face. </p><p>"Did she just-" she demanded. </p><p>"Orb out of here without us?" Piper finished for her. "Yeah. Just think, once you guys are all back in your right bodies, it can be you who orbs out on us without warning."</p><p>Paige stared at her, and then unexpectedly burst into a giggling fit. "Is this going to be my life, now?" she asked, shaking her head. "Magic and crazy sisters?"</p><p>Piper grinned. "You'll learn to love us," she teased. "Come on, we should get you up to speed on Prue's power. Phoebe and Prue are probably going to be followed home by a really pissed off demon, and you and I need to be ready."</p>
<hr/><p>Orbing, Phoebe decided, was the coolest thing ever. She loved her premonitions, but she'd always wanted an active power, and the ability to go anywhere in the blink of an eye was pretty damn fun. </p><p>She'd appeared in the middle of a rocky cavern. It looked like the same place she'd wound up when the demon had first grabbed her, but then she imagined that if she was in the Underworld, a lot of places looked exactly the same. She heard a noise from behind her, and when she turned around, she had the disorienting sensation of seeing her own body chained to a rock, chin tucked down to her chest. </p><p>"Prue?" she ventured, hesitantly. She really hoped it was her sister in there; the last thing they needed was a brand-new wrinkle to the whole body swapping thing. Cautiously moving closer, she gingerly shook her shoulder. "Prue, wake up."</p><p>Her head jerked upright, and then Phoebe was staring into her own eyes. It was like looking into a really creepy mirror. </p><p>"Please tell me you're not a demon." Even weirder hearing her own voice. "Hey, can you get me out of here?"</p><p>"Prue?" Phoebe tried, again, and suspicion crossed the other woman's face. "Prue," she said, hastily, "it's me. Phoebe."</p><p>"Phoebe?" Prue echoed, incredulously. "That's not my body."</p><p>"Yeah, your body swapping backfire backfired even more than you thought," Phoebe told her. Kneeling down, she started to work on the chains securing Prue to the rock, using the bobby pin in Paige's hair. "It's a really long story, and Piper and I will tell you everything, but we need to get out of here, first."</p><p>"I wish you'd gotten zapped into my body," Prue said, as Phoebe struggled with the chains that stubbornly refused to unlock. "Then you could just use my power to get these damn things off. Who is that, anyway?"</p><p>"That's-" Phoebe hesitated, wondering exactly how much to tell Prue. "That's part of that long story," she finally finished. "Ha, got it!" she crowed in triumph, when the lock on the chains clicked open. </p><p>"I never thought I'd be grateful for your lock picking skills," Prue said, stepping out of the chains. "Okay, how are we getting back home?"</p><p>"That's the fun part," Phoebe said, happily. Winding her arm around Prue's, she closed her eyes and focused on the Manor. </p><p>Opening her eyes a second later, she realized that nothing had happened. They were still in that cavern. Prue was looking hopefully at her. </p><p>"When's the fun going to start?" she asked. </p><p>"Right now," Phoebe promised. "We're going home right now."</p><p>But, they didn't move, and Phoebe was starting to get frustrated. Orbing hadn't been this hard the other two times she'd done it. And she was doing the same thing that had worked before. She really, really wanted to go home. </p><p>"Home," Phoebe said, ignoring the strange look she got from Prue. "I want to go home. Come on, home!"</p><p>Nothing happened. They didn't even move an inch. </p><p>"What are you doing?" Prue asked. </p><p>"I kind of landed in a Whitelighter's body," Phoebe fudged, deciding on a partial truth. </p><p>"So, orb us out of here," Prue said. </p><p>"I'm trying," Phoebe said, biting back her impatience. "It's not working; I don't know why."</p><p>"Well, try harder," Prue snapped, an odd note in her voice. Phoebe looked up to see the demon standing in the entrance to the cavern. "Because we've got company."</p>
<hr/><p>For the first time since she'd wound up in the Underworld, in Phoebe's body, Prue was starting to think that she'd made a mistake with her spell. Because neither she nor Phoebe was in their right bodies, and they didn't have any active powers to defend themselves with, and an angry demon was bearing down on them. </p><p>They were kind of screwed. </p><p>"Are you sure you can't orb us out of here?" Prue asked, gripping Phoebe's shoulder and pulling her backward, away from the demon. </p><p>"I'm trying," Phoebe protested, gritting the words through clenched teeth. "It's not as easy as Leo makes it look, you know."</p><p>A second later, the world disappeared in white, and when Prue could see again, they were standing in the middle of the attic. </p><p>"Must be easier than you thought," she remarked, but Phoebe looked just as surprised as she was. </p><p>"Actually, Sunshine, that was us," Piper's cheerful voice rang out from behind them, and Prue turned around to see her sister standing beside the Book. </p><p>Beside her, Prue saw herself, and she hoped that it was the Whitelighter that Phoebe was borrowing. Three body swaps among them was more than enough. </p><p>"We found a spell to call a lost witch," Piper went on, gesturing to the woman standing beside her. "Used it to bring you two back here."</p><p>"Thanks," Prue said. "How'd you know we were going to need the lift?"</p><p>"I kind of figured," Piper replied. "Phoebe didn't exactly have orbing under control when she took off and stranded us up here." She shot her younger sister a cheeky grin. </p><p>"I didn't mean to do it," Phoebe muttered, sheepishly. </p><p>"Hey," the other woman spoke up, "you still have better control over my powers than I do. Powers. I can't believe I have powers."  She looked utterly baffled by the words coming out of her mouth. </p><p>"I thought you said she was a Whitelighter," Prue said, confused, to Phoebe. Her confusion only grew when both Piper and the stranger looked at Phoebe, as well.</p><p>"Well, you're kind of a Whitelighter," Phoebe protested. "Prue, this is Paige. She's, um-" She cast Piper a look that Prue could only describe as pleading. </p><p>"She's half Whitelighter," Piper cut in, smoothly. "And she's our sister." She shot Prue a look that was almost a glare, practically daring her to comment. Beside her, Paige had a nervous look on her face, like she was waiting for the axe to fall. </p><p>Any reply Prue would have made was cut off by the arrival of the demon in their midst. He already had an energy ball in his hand, and Prue instinctively jerked her hand toward him, expecting the demon to go flying back into the wall. Nothing happened. </p><p>"Remember what I said about getting angry?" Piper hissed at Paige, who waved her hand at the demon. He stumbled back maybe a step, and Paige grimaced. </p><p>"Not angry enough?" she muttered.</p><p>"Not nearly," Prue snapped, hearing her. </p><p>At the sound of her voice, the demon turned to face her, and the next thing Prue knew, she and Phoebe were flying through the air. Her shoulder was on fire from where the energy ball had hit it. Prue struggled to her feet in time to see Piper get knocked backwards, slamming into the wall to slump to the floor. </p><p>"Son of a bitch!" Paige roared, and the demon was blasted backward, leaving a dent in the wall when he hit. </p><p>"That's angry enough," Prue told the surprised woman, who was staring at her outstretched hand like she'd just discovered she was holding a live grenade. "Power of Three spell," she ordered, as she pulled Phoebe to her feet and they went over to a still-groggy Piper. "Paige, you might want to duck, or something. We've never used this spell around bystanders."</p><p>"It's not going to work," Piper interjected, keeping a wary eye on the demon climbing to his feet at the other end of the attic. "Wrong bodies, remember?"</p><p>"We need Paige for the spell," Phoebe realized, "and I'll be the one hiding behind the couch."</p><p>"Yeah, but our souls-" Prue argued, and then she swore when the demon hefted another energy ball, a murderous expression on his face. "Oh, screw it! All four of us, on three!"</p><p>
  <i>"The Power of Three will set us free,<br/>
The Power of Three will set us free,<br/>
The Power of Three will set us free-"</i>
</p><p>The demon exploded with a pained scream, and Prue dropped her sisters' hands with a sigh of relief. She looked around, worried, but none of them seemed hurt. Paige was staring at the spot where the demon had been standing, a blank look on her face. </p><p>"We're reversing this body swap, right now," Paige declared, into the silence that had fallen over the attic. "I have to get back to work before I lose my job."</p><p>"About that," Phoebe spoke up, a sheepish tone in her voice. "Um, your boss kind of thinks that you've been at the ER this whole time."</p><p>Paige spun around and stared at her in disbelief. "What did you do to my head?" she cried, eyes drawn to the dark spot on her hairline. </p><p>Phoebe instinctively went to move away when Paige tried to prod at the wound, and then held still. Paige's fingers came away with flecks of dried blood, and she scowled. </p><p>"When the spell hit, you blacked out and hit your head on the stairs," Phoebe told her. "And then I woke up in your body, and didn't know what was going on, and they called an ambulance before I could stop them."</p><p>"Fantastic," Paige grumbled. "Now I have to go get stitches. Can we do this, please?" There was a tense note in her voice, and when Prue looked closer, she saw Paige standing rigidly, still staring at the same spot on the floor. </p><p>"Are you okay?" Piper asked, quietly, and Paige shook her head. </p><p>"You said that we would have to fight a demon," she said, quietly. "You didn't say anything about having to kill a demon."</p><p>"Paige-" Piper started, but the other woman cut her off. </p><p>"Look, I know I said that I was all right, earlier, but, I just-" She trailed off, dragging a hand through her hair in frustration. "I need some time to think about all of this."</p><p>"Okay," Piper said. </p><p>She pulled a reversal spell out from somewhere (Prue was fairly certain that she was going to be thanking Piper for a long, long time for cleaning up her ill-thought-out mess), and a few seconds later, everyone was back where they belonged. Prue bit back a smirk at Phoebe, who was running her hands over her arms and legs like she'd never seen them before. </p><p>"Relax, would you?" Prue teased her. "I didn't let the demon chop any pieces off." </p><p>She glanced over at Paige, ready to ask how the other woman was doing, in time to see the back of her head disappear out of the attic. Piper watched her leave, her lips pressed into a tight line. </p><p>"This was not our finest hour," she informed her sisters, bluntly. </p><p>"Do you think Paige is going to be okay?" Phoebe asked, quietly, getting a shrug from Piper. </p><p>"We were," Prue spoke up. </p><p>"We had each other to lean on," Piper pointed out. </p><p>"And she'll have us," Prue said, firmly. "When Paige comes back – and she will, because she's family – we'll be here for her."</p><p>"Prue Halliwell, everyone," Phoebe quipped. "Master of the motivational one-liner."</p><p>"Shut up," Prue said, without heat. "Come on. Let's go downstairs and you can tell me what you know about our new sister."</p>
<hr/><p>Storming out of the Halliwell house with no clear idea of where she was hadn't been Paige's finest moment. But she was almost a block away from the house before it occurred to her. Her head was pounding, and adrenaline had made the wound start bleeding again, sluggishly. She could feel the blood trickling slowly down the side of her face. </p><p>Glancing up at a street sign, Paige grimaced. She was all the way across town, stranded without her car. </p><p><i>'Maybe I can do what Phoebe did,'</i> Paige thought. </p><p>That little teleporting trick she'd pulled off earlier could be useful. How did Phoebe make it work? She'd wanted to be somewhere, and then she was. </p><p><i>'Well, I want to be back at work,'</i> Paige thought. <i>'Back where things make sense, and I know what's going on.'</i></p><p>Looking around quickly to make sure she was alone, Paige screwed her eyes shut and focused on her car. The driver's seat with the lump in the back and the loose spring in the seat that she never remembered to fix. She'd owned that car since she'd graduated college, saved up for two years to buy it. It was safe, familiar. If she was going to teleport anywhere, it was there. </p><p>But she didn't move from her position on the sidewalk. Paige glared down at the cracked pavement under her feet like it was personally responsible for her current predicament. </p><p>Maybe her powers had a limit, maybe her body needed to recharge before she could do it again. Maybe her power was broken. Maybe it was only good for two uses to begin with, and Phoebe had burned it out. </p><p>Whatever the reason, she was stuck on her own two feet, and that meant walking. Paige sighed as she started trudging down the street. </p><p>Five minutes into her walk, her phone began to ring. Paige pulled it out of her pocket, surprised. She didn't remember having it on her earlier, but so much had happened since then, it wasn't surprising that she'd forgotten. </p><p>"Hello?"</p><p>"Paige?" Crap. It was her new boss. And she was nowhere near where she was supposed to be. "Matthews, are you still at the hospital?"</p><p>"Um-" Paige tried to think of a convincing lie, but her mind had gone completely blank. </p><p>"You left the hospital, didn't you?" Cowan demanded, without waiting for her to answer. "You have a head injury, Paige. You need to be at the hospital."</p><p>"It's honestly not that bad," Paige protested. "The bleeding's stopped - okay, mostly stopped - and I don't need to be at the hospital. I hate the hospital!" She could hear herself getting worked up, and took a deep breath trying to calm herself down. "I just want to go home," she finished, quietly. </p><p>"Fine," Cowan conceded. "Go home for the rest of the day. But I don't want to see you in the office tomorrow, got it? You're taking a sick day, tomorrow, and don't even bother arguing with me."</p><p>"Got it, boss," Paige replied. </p><p>"Get some rest," Cowan told her, and then he hung up. Paige sighed as she stuffed her phone back into her pocket. She had what was likely a long walk ahead of her, and she wanted to be home before it got dark. </p><p>For once, Lady Luck seemed to be on her side; not only did she get home just before sunset, but her spare key was still taped to the inside of the mail slot on her door - the first time all week that it hadn't fallen off. She nearly dislocated a finger getting the key, but she gritted her teeth through the pain, taped her fingers together in the kitchen, slapped a quick dressing on her forehead,  and headed for her bed. Dropping onto the messy covers without even bothering to take her shoes off, Paige flicked a hand out and dragged the blanket over her head, blocking out the last dying rays of sunlight coming in through the window.</p><p>She was asleep within seconds.</p>
<hr/><p>Paige didn't know what woke her up, but when she dragged her head out from under the blanket, she wasn't alone in the apartment. A woman not much older than she was sitting at the tiny table in the kitchen, watching her.</p><p>When she leaned forward, a strand of long, light brown hair fell into her face, and she lifted her hand to brush it away. That was when Paige realized that she could still see the woman's face through her hand. And she could see the rest of her apartment through the woman.</p><p>Her intruder was completely transparent.</p><p>Paige blinked, rubbing at her eyes to dispel the hallucination. Didn't work. When she opened her eyes again, the woman – ghost? – was still sitting there, patiently watching her with a small smile on her face.</p><p>"Um," Paige started, and then she trailed off, at a loss as to how to even start the conversation that clearly needed to happen.</p><p>"Hello, Paige." The woman's smile widened as she looked at Paige. "I've waited so long to see you, again." A rueful tone colored her voice as she added,  "Of course, I kind of imagined that I'd still be alive at this meeting-"</p><p>"You're Piper's mother," Paige said, as realization struck. "And Prue's, and Phoebe's-"</p><p>"And your's," the woman interrupted her, gently. "My beautiful girl. I always dreamed that you'd come home to us, one day."</p><p>"Right," Paige said, slowly. She climbed out of bed and headed for the battered coffee pot on the counter, adding water and grounds before flicking the machine on. "No offense, but I'm not nearly awake enough for this, right now."</p><p>The woman – her birth mother – nodded calmly, waiting in patient silence while the coffee brewed. When it was done, Paige almost reflexively offered the other woman a cup before it hit her that ghosts didn't drink. To buy herself time before they started talking, she poured herself a cup and took a huge gulp of the hot liquid, burning her tongue in the process. Finally, when she couldn't keep stalling any longer, she sat down beside the woman.</p><p>"Patty Halliwell," the woman said, before Paige could start. "I can't very well ask you to call me Mom the very first time we meet."</p><p>"What are you doing here?" Paige asked, bluntly.</p><p>"Checking up on you," Patty replied. "I saw you with your sisters and I wanted to meet you. I haven't seen you in over twenty years, after all."</p><p>"You were watching us through that whole body swap thing?" Paige asked.</p><p>"Well, there's not a whole lot to do Up There when you're dead," Patty deadpanned. More serious, she added, "I didn't get to spend nearly enough time with any of my daughters. I like to keep an eye on all of you when I can. It makes the distance easier."</p><p>"So you saw the fight with that demon?" Paige asked, quietly. Patty gave her a sympathetic look.</p><p>"The first time I vanquished a demon," she said, "I was sick for hours afterward. I was nineteen, and I'd seen demon vanquishes before, I couldn't avoid it around my mother, but this was the first demon I'd gone up against on my own. I couldn't stop crying – this demon had tried to kill me, would have killed me if I hadn't stopped him, and I was crying because he was dead and I was still alive. I thought I was losing my mind."</p><p>"How did you get over it?" Paige asked, hesitantly.</p><p>"My Whitelighter, Sam – your biological father – he told me that being upset just meant that I was still human, that I could still feel. He said that the time to worry was when I stopped feeling anything at all." A fond smile tugged at her lips. "He also told me that if he could, he'd take the burden from me in a heartbeat. I think that was when I first fell in love with him. Not that I did anything about it," she added. "It was forbidden; I didn't dare."</p><p>"Obviously that didn't stop you later," Paige muttered, and from Patty's chuckle, she'd been overheard.</p><p>"Later, the rules seemed less important," she replied. "And I've never regretted breaking them. Even when we had to give you up-" Before Paige could ask the obvious question, Patty went on, "I wish we'd had a choice. I wish there'd been some other way to protect you."</p><p>"Protect me from what?" Paige asked.</p><p>"The Elders, mostly," Patty told her. She didn't elaborate on the name, but from the vicious glare she shot the ceiling, Paige wondered if Patty had encountered them as a ghost. "Sam and I were breaking one of their most important rules, and if they'd known, they would have been furious. They would have taken you away, and we probably would have never seen you again. At least, giving you to someone else to raise, to love, we hoped you'd have a happy life."</p><p>"I did," Paige said, glancing at the framed picture of her parents on the wall behind her bed. "My parents and I, we were really, really happy. I don't think I would have traded that for anything."</p><p>"I'm glad," Patty said, sounding like she meant it. "I do wish we could have kept you with us-"</p><p>"I'm here, now," Paige pointed out. </p><p>"You are," Patty agreed. Smiling fondly at Paige, she added, "Paige, I love you-"</p><p>The sound of a blaring alarm jerked Paige out of a sound sleep and she shot upright in bed, looking around the room in shock. She was alone in the apartment, no ghost sitting at her table, no coffee cooling in the pot on the counter. It had all been just a dream.</p><p>Or maybe not. </p><p>Getting out of bed after she silenced her alarm clock, Paige padded across the room to find a piece of paper sitting on the table, one that hadn't been there when she'd left for work yesterday morning. 'I love you, darling' was written in delicate, loopy handwriting, and Paige smiled as she folded up the note and tucked it into the frame of her parents' picture. </p><p>Then, she headed for the coffee pot to make herself some coffee for real, this time. Her unexpected day off work meant that she had some time to track down her sisters.</p>
<hr/><p>Focused on the packing slip from her latest shipment of alcohol, Piper didn’t bother looking up at the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs. “We’re not open until tonight,” she called out, instead. </p><p>“Oh, well I can come back,” a familiar voice said, and Piper popped up from behind the bar to see Paige heading back toward the front door.</p><p>“Paige, wait!” she called out, and her youngest sister froze, mid-step. “I didn’t know it was you,” Piper explained as she hurried out onto the floor.</p><p>“I gotta say,” Piper said, as she led Paige over to her favorite seating alcove. “We weren’t entirely sure if we were going to see you, again.”</p><p>“I wasn’t too sure that I was coming back,” Paige admitted, dropping onto the couch next to Piper. “I’ve had a lot to think about overnight.”</p><p>“Magic can be a lot to take in,” Piper replied. </p><p>“Magic, demons, long-lost sisters-” Paige trailed off, shaking her head in amazement. “I still don’t know if I’m okay with all this,” she finished, quietly. </p><p>“You must be okay with some of it,” Piper pointed out, “if you’re here.”</p><p>“Yeah, some of it,” Paige said, with a small smile. “Mostly the sister stuff.”</p><p>“Well, that’s the most important part,” Piper said, making Paige laugh. “Seriously, though,” Piper continued, “you know that Prue, Phoebe, and I are always here for you. If you want to talk about anything, we’re here.”</p><p>“Thank you,” Paige told her. “That means a lot.”</p><p>“In fact,” Piper added, suddenly inspired, “why don’t you come to dinner, tomorrow night? We’ll sit down, we’ll talk, you can grill us about anything - magic, Mom and her Whitelighter, whatever you want to know about.”</p><p>“I think I’d like that,” Paige replied. “I think I’d like that, a lot.”</p>
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